One Piece

Do you think you're a hard worker? My trainer caught me off-guard with this question because I was so exhausted from dragging a sled of weights across the gym floor. I gasped for breath.. No.  Then I added an addendum after a few moments... In comparison to others...yes, probably.  But usually I don't compare my performances to others. I only juxtaposition my 'now' with what I did before and what I'm trying to do. So the question of 'being a hardworker' is a moot point. I'm only as good as my last session, my last written page. And every moment is an opportunity. I've had some bad sessions and written some atrocious pages. And then I have had good moments. But there isn't a hard-working or lazy 'me.' There isn't a smart writer or a fraudulent hack. Only this time right here. 

I was asked to write some author notes for the American premiere of OBAMA-OLOGY at Skylight Theatre in Los Angeles. I revised the notes I made for RADA when this play opened in London last spring.  Our culture has a messianic fixation on ‘the one.’ That’s who Barack Obama was in 2008: not a presidential candidate, not a junior Senator Illinois. He was ‘the one.’ In my past I have been held that token position. I have been saddled and paraded out with impossible expectations that traded my humanity for symbols of someone else’s virtue. Being ‘the one’ is a terribly fraught because even the slightest setback seems to not only reflect poorly on your entire race, but enrages your so-called supporters who feel as if they have been morally betrayed, while delighting your detractors who feel as if their bigotry has been vindicated. It is a perversion of tokenism where a person becomes fetishized into statue, a robot, a slogan. After eight years, the Obama presidency ha...

I met up with Oshri in Beverly Hills on Saturday. We walked around and went to Whole Foods for a smoothie while he carried his baby nephew on his shoulder. He shared his intense experience with hatred and loss with me. Walking back from Whole Foods, we went over the election and Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, and the insanity. It felt like we were talking around the issue that was underneath all these frustration: ignorance. The lack of knowledge is not only rejected it's now become emboldened. To know-nothing and lash out with rage at different groups is lynch-mob mentality. That kind of thinking creates chaos while leaving the actual problem untouched. Our world seems obsessed with fear, scapegoating, rage, and violence because we don't understand how the world works. We conceived of a cartoon story for Oshri to animate that deals with love and hate. The next morning I woke up to the news of the Orlando mass shooting, which is the deadliest gun massacre by a lone criminal. It ...

Updated 5/31/21 Indie authors need all the help they can get. Self-publishing is taxing, time-consuming, and there is a steep learning curve. Fortunately, there are lots of people who are willing to help. If you are considering self-publishing, you will need an arsenal of tools, tips, and strategies, all of which you can find in the following sites. Need a free guide on how to find traditional publishers that don't require an agent? Authors Publish has one. Need daily updates on the publishing industry? Look no further than Publishers Weekly. Between these 10 sites you will be well-equipped to take the Indie world by storm. ______________________ 1.  ThePassiveVoice.com . Passive Guy (aka David P. Vandagriff) is a lawyer who began blogging anonymously "so his snarky remarks would not show up when opposing counsel performed a Google search." Personally, I find his remarks to be anything but snarky. Although his disclaimer warns readers not to take his comments as legal adv...

Updated 5/30/21 If you are a writer, you absolutely must keep a blog. Why? Because blogs are a great way for agents and/or editors to see how you write informally and, of course, your fans will enjoy reading your blog posts. The problem faced by bloggers is the same faced by up-and-coming writers. How will people find you? If you have not yet published a book (and even if you have) it is difficult to make yourself known in the vast Blogosphere. Fortunately, there are many ways to promote your posts. You can precycle by publishing your posts on other well-trafficked sites first, you can guest post, you can also post links to your posts on various platforms. A few sites also allow you to recycle your posts. That is, you can re-publish your posts on another, larger, platform. (See LinkedIn and Medium below.) When you re-post, remember to include a call to action at the end . The call to action is a simple statement of who you are and what your blog is about, along with a link. It should ...

1. The Civilians R&D Deadline: June 15th Website: http://www.thecivilians.org/programs/rdgroup.html Please read these directions carefully BEFORE completing the application. Note: this application cannot be saved. The Civilians R&D Group is comprised of theater artists from various disciplines (writers, directors, composers, performance, etc.) interested in exploring different strategies for making investigative theater and being a part of The Civilians' community of artists. We define "investigative theater" broadly, meaning any creative process of inquiry that feeds the creation of a work of theater. Methods may include research, a community-based focus, interviews, company-devised strategies, or other experimental strategies of the artist's design. The artists meet on a regular basis for nine months to share and discuss their methodologies and the resulting work with the group, facilitated by the R&D Coordinator. The generative artists in the group (wri...